15 minute read
Carmel Valley’s Schauffele on a jolly good roll
inside
information
felix taverna
Sports, by the numbers
It’s all about the numbers. Numbers matter in almost every aspect of life and identify our favorite sports stars. Take this quiz on famous athletes’ jersey numbers. How many can you name correctly (without Google)? 1. Walter Payton (NFL) 2. Michael Jordan (NBA) 3. Dale Earnhardt (NASCAR) 4. Brett Favre (NFL) 5. Bill Russell (NBA) 6. Babe Ruth (MLB) 7. Derek Jeter (MLB) 8. Wilt Chamberlin (NBA) 9. Bart Starr (NFL) 10. Tony Gwynn (MLB) 11. Gordy Howe (NHL) 12. Batry Sanders (NFL) 13. Jerome Bettis (NFL) 14. Mike Trout (MLB) 15. Jackie Robinson (MLB) 16. Lionel Messi (Soccer) 17. Gayle Sayers (NFL) 18. Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR) 19. Mickey Mantle (MLB) 20. Joe Montana (NFL) 21. Roberto Clemente (MLB) 22. Phillip Rivers (NFL) 23. Lou Gehrig (MLB) 24 Eric Dickerson (NFL) 25. Hank Aaron (MLB) 26. Wayne Gretzky (NHL) 27. Lance Alworth (NFL) 28. David Robinson (NBA) 29. Peyton Manning (NFL) 30. Magic Johnson (NBA)
Numbers are so important … like 1090 The Mightier AM ESPN Radio where you can find Race & Sports Radio at 9 a.m. every Saturday for all the horse racing action from Del Mar Racetrack.
Follow The Mightier on Twitter: @1090TheMightier
Quiz
Answers:
30.(32) 26.(99) 27.(19) 28.(50) 29.(18) 22.(17) 23.(4) 24.(29) 25.(44) 18.(48) 19.(7) 20.(16) 21.(21) 14.(27) 15.(42) 16.(10) 17.(40) 10.(19) 11.(9) 12.(20) 13.(36) 5.(6) 6.(3) 7.(2) 8.(13) 9.(15) 1.(34) 2.(23) 3.(3) 4.(4)
Xander Schauffele’s custom home is still under construction on a plush North County golf course.
His golf game? It’s in pristine shape.
Carmel Valley’s Schauffele is on a worldwide roll. How else to explain winning three times in three countries in three weeks?
The run has catapulted Schauffele, the former San Diego State star, to No. 5 in the world as he sets his sights on this week’s Open Championship in St. Andrews, Scotland.
He enters as among the favorites, although it’s rare for any golfer at any level to stay this hot, this long.
“I’m not sure if that’s like a curse or something,” Schauffele told reporters after winning Sunday’s Scottish Open.
Instead he’ll curse the media, with a smile of course, as they invariably bring it up this week.
“I’m going to ignore all the media as much as possible,” he said. “There’s a few guys that like to tell me about history and all, but I’m obviously in good form and going to try and carry that.”
It was a heavy lift at the Scottish Open, where Schauffele started the final round with a two-stroke lead. But he was down a stroke at the turn and he didn’t seize the lead back until a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 14. Then a two-shot edge went to one, which was his margin of victory.
“I came out of the gates very nicely and kind of hit a wall and was looking a bit sketchy for a little bit,” he said. “It was nice to sort of steady the ship on the way in.”
A work of art? Nope. A way to land another win? Yep.
“It’s what links golf promotes, getting the ball in the hole,” Schauffele said. “I was telling myself that it doesn’t have to be pretty, unfortunately, but I got the ball in the hole and one better than everyone else.”
Schauffele, 28, has left many in his wake of late after winning last month’s Travelers Championship in Connecticut for his first individual PGA Tour title in three years. Then came the J.P. McManus Pro-Am in Ireland before he prevailed in Scotland.
He’s only the fifth American to win the Scottish Open but the third with North County ties. Rancho Santa Fe’s Phil Mickelson (2013) and part-time Del Mar resident Tom Lehman (1997) also won there.
Schauffele is the sixth player in the last 10 seasons to enter a major coming off wins in consecutive PGA Tour starts. Only Rory McIlroy followed up with a major victory.
“Xander is awesome,” Collin Morikawa said before the British Open, which is called the Open Championship on the pond’s other side. “I’ve kind of been trying to figure out how he’s been playing so well.”
Schauffele would like to swipe something off Morikawa’s resume, which includes two major titles. Winning one of the big four — PGA Championship, Masters, U.S. Open and British Open — is the one gap in Schauffele’s career.
Even before his trio of triumphs, Schauffele’s body of work was still impressive. He won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and he teamed with Patrick Cantlay to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans earlier this year.
Schauffele is a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour as he again brings the spotlight to the SDSU golf program. An Aztec has won four of the last 16 PGA Tour events, with J.J. Spaun taking the Valero Texas Open.
It’s hardly a surprise Schauffele, a La Jolla native, shined after a stellar career on Montezuma Mesa. He had 21 top-10 finishes at SDSU and was a third-team All-American selection before graduating with a degree in social science.
Now he’s perched on the brink of golf immortality, if he can win a major to complete his major run of success.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE
took a threeevent winning streak into this week’s British Open at St. Andrews.
Photo via Twitter
sports talk
jay paris
Contact Jay Paris at jparis8@aol.com and follow him @jparis_sports
A BANNER DAY FOR CARLSBAD YOUTH BASEBALL
Carlsbad Youth Baseball brought home its first-ever Pony League regional banner in the Shetland division (ages 3 to 6) after its all-star team defeated San Marcos, 17-15, in the Pony West Zone Southwest Regional Championship on July 4 in Escondido. The Carlsbad team is competing in the 2022 Pony West Zone Finals from July 14 to July 19 at the youth baseball complex in Simi Valley. Team members include AJ Garcia, Peyton Monroe, Brax Amavisca, Gabe Anderson, Pierce Erickson, Raymond Thill, Kalem Solis, Graham Dahl, Judah Shokair, Mario Luis, Mason Asher, Isiah McBrayer, Duke Cassaro, head coach Frank Garcia and assistant coaches Brian Thill, Ryan Solis, Brian Cassaro and Ben Monroe. Courtesy photo
40
The CoasT News My genetic engineering wish list
I’m as happy as the next guy to see people dressed up like corncobs, but that hasn’t convinced me of the perils of biotech engineering.
I know those costumed protesters were sincere, but I can’t help but cheer for the possibility of tweaking certain traits in food and people.
Just look around. Don’t tell me there aren’t several things, and people, you’d like to have tweaked just a wee bit.
Bioengineering critics have a twofold concern, it seems. On one hand, they are trying to prevent the future creation of test tube supermen. They clearly have not been to a graduation ceremony lately.
I have strong suspicions about those half-dozen kids who stood up for every single award category, had a 6.8 grade point average, held an office, reached Eagle Scout, played in the marching band, starred in the school play, had perfect skin and were on at least two sports teams. That can’t be natural.
But if they can accomplish that, maybe we could actually engineer a spouse who remembers birthdays, and while we are at it, alter that gene that keeps them from rinsing hair from the sink.
With a little research, I bet we could get a store employee who would remember what they have in stock and know where to find it.
If they can insert a daffodil gene into rice, they can surely insert a friendly, helpful disposition into that store sales clerk.
And speaking of dispositions, let’s just pluck out that attitude gene that kicks in at puberty. Surely there is a gracious, grateful, cooperative gene we could slip in there.
Along with the vitamin A they engineer to saves children’s vision, could we find something that makes the child see a mess before they step over it?
Would it be possible to isolate the gene that makes me wince at a sink of dirty dishes? How about the one that knows when it’s time to clean up the dog mess in the backyard?
Oh, don’t forget the gene that gives me the extraordinary ability to not only notice when the milk carton is empty but remember to replace it with the same brand.
I want and will pay dearly to have these all spliced into my husband and children.
Backing up just a hair, we could engineer out a toddler’s need to wake up at 5 a.m. full of energy and joie de vivre. Swap that gene out for the sleep-until-noon teenage lethargy and we might have a real winner.
Just think. An infant who lets you sleep in and a teenager who thinks vacuuming is fun. Heck, I’d even like the one that would make me enjoy housework.
My mom had it, but it didn’t make the jump to my DNA strand.
If they can add protein to a tomato, can’t we manage a hot fudge sauce that contains my MDR of vitamins and minerals and burns its own fat?
If these biotechnical engineers really cared about world peace, they would find a way for women to metabolize chocolate faster than they can eat it.
Come on, guys. You’re just not trying.
small talk
jean gillette
Jean Gillette is a journalist and freelance writer stuck with her original set of genes.
Who’s
NEWS?
Business news and special achievements for North San Diego County. Send information via email to community@ coastnewsgroup.com.
COLUMNIST HONORED
California Focus columnist Thomas Elias was named the year’s best columnist expressing one person’s viewpoint on public affairs in the 2022 competition of the Los Angeles Press Club. The awards were announced last month. The Elias column appears in 101 newspapers of all sizes throughout California, including The Coast News. Said the judges, members of other press clubs around the nation: Elias is “an observant columnist holding the powerful accountable. As fewer observant eyes monitor local, regional and state level politics, there is no doubt his role has grown all the more important in recent years.
SANDRA ENCALADA of Scripps Research has been awarded $4.1 million by the National Institute on Aging to study how prion diseases kill brain cells. Courtesy photo
WELL DONE
• Yolanda Vilardi of Oceanside was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi at Oregon State University. • Oregon State University spring 2022 graduates include, from Cardiff: Rebecca Bland and Nolan Sunder; Carlsbad: Olivia Carney, Kyrie Koehn, Alexandra Simpson, Blair Stone and Patrick Zimmer; Encinitas: Alexis Arteaga, Marina Keller and Andrew Ross; Escondido: Cameron Wiesner; Oceanside: Madison Arkeder, Jaime Justo, Viktor Medvinsky, Rafael Robles and Mick Shipman; San Marcos: Jordyn Bunting, Julia Drizin, Natalie Gould, Gabrielle Nosewicz and Christian Plue; Vista: Bryan DiStefano. • Reese Billington and Erica Zito of Solana Beach; Isabella Carroll of Encinitas; Garret Collins, Darah Matos and Andrew Poole of Oceanside; Cade Madeira, Riley Raynor and Kyle Wada of Carlsbad; Marisa Mitchell and Brooke Willoughby of Carmel Valley; Taylor Mitchell of Rancho Santa Fe; and Daphne Tenuto and Camryn Wick of San Marcos are spring 2022 graduates of the University of Alabama. • Gabriella Bacino of Rancho Santa Fe was named to the College of the Holy Cross spring 2022 dean’s list. • University of Iowa graduates include, from Encinitas, Nicole Cirino, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Cameron Dickson, Tippie College of Business and Evita Woolsey, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; from San Marcos, Maya Tyra Sevilla, College of Public Health and from San Diego, Anandita Watts, Master of Arts. • Chad Geddes of San Diego graduated with a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Ohio University’s College of Health Sciences and Professions in spring 2022. • David Caccavo of San Marcos earned a Bachelor of Science in business and economics and Nate Schutte of Encinitas earned a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. • Libby Lambert of Carmel Valley was named to the spring 2022 dean’s list at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. • Sean Malter of Carlsbad; Reagan Kan, William Nute and Dakota Oberhauser of San Diego; Devin Waltman of Rancho Santa Fe and Courtney Wolpov of San Marcos earned graduate degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology in spring 2022.
Pet of the Week
Blue is pet of the week at Rancho Coastal Humane Society. She’s a 1-year, 5-month-old, 55-pound, female hound mix.
Blue was transferred to Rancho Coastal Humane Society from a rescue partner in Mexico through the Friends of County Animal Shelters (FOCAS) program.
She was adopted, then returned when her family decided they weren’t ready to have a puppy. She will go to her new home with a $505 Fresh Start package that includes, training, toys, and treats.
The $145 adoption fee for Blue includes medical exam, spay, up-to-date vaccinations, registered microchip and a one-year license if her new home is in the jurisdiction of San Diego Humane Society’s Department of Animal Services.
For information about adoption or to become a Virtual Foster, stop by Rancho Coastal Humane Society at 389 Requeza Street in Encinitas, call 760-753-6413 or visit www. SDpets.org.
BRAIN RESEARCH
Sandra Encalada, PhD, of Scripps Research, was awarded $4.1 million from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for research into how prion diseases kill brain cells. Some prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), can arise sporadically or from an inherited mutation in the prion protein. In other cases, prion diseases can be transmissible between animals or—in even more rare instances—infect people who eat contaminated meat.
EARLY WARNING
On June 16, Metrolink announced an advancement in its Earthquake Early Warning System with new technology that automatically applies the brakes for safe and rapid slowing or stopping of trains in the event of an earthquake. A previous version of the technology, that Metrolink deployed in September 2021, had the capability to send automated messages to train crews to begin to slow or stop the train but did not include automated brake enforcement.
The 2-hour vacation
Before I discovered surfing, there was fishing off the Newport Pier with my dad.
We would bait five hooks and reel in as many mackerel on nearly every cast. By midday we were lugging home a gunny sack filled with fish, most of which would become fertilizer for my father’s gladiolas.
I was an out-of-touch pre-teen with little idea that if everyone took more than they needed from the ocean, it would eventually lead to scarcity.
Now, while I still love fishing, especially beach fishing, which involves a good walk with inexpensive gear, using bait dug up in the sand, I conserve that precious resource.
Fish are not trophies but living beings whose death keeps us healthy. Repay the favor by showing respect for them. I fool them into chewing on the end of my line, but don’t feel bad about that since they are also using deception to take their food.
It’s corbina season, those beautiful creatures that slither into inches of water pursuing their favorite food, sand crabs. For the skilled, corbina can be speared from the beach, but mostly they are caught using light fishing tackle.
I prefer a rod and spinning reel setup, 4-to6-pound test line, number 4 hooks and small slip shot sinkers. My favorite bait are sand crabs, which can be dug up in the damp sand.
From there, it’s a matter of walking until you see them drifting in the shore break. Purists sometimes catch them on fly rods, and I have even seen some hunters stalk them using crossbows.
Any way you care to approach it, corbina fishing is an art requiring patience and skill. They are fun to catch, but nothing I would recommend for insatiable cattle boat anglers who regularly catch more than they can eat. (Mea culpa.)
Another enjoyable, inexpensive and healthy pastime (unless you encounter an unexpected great white visitor) is spearfishing. Just last week, I rinsed off my mask, fins, snorkel and sling, swam out into the Carlsbad shallows and quickly spotted a small school of juvenile white seabass. Tempting as they are, seabass are not legal to take until they are over 29 inches in length.
One inexperienced diver who swam with the band of his spear stretched tightly (a dangerous practice that can lead to injury of fellow divers) speared a tiny opaleye and a seabass that was far from the legal limit.
He was, nonetheless, proud of his catch, swimming it to shore and parading it across the sand to astounded tourists, one of whom asked, while pointing toward the ocean, “Did you get that out there?”
While this is certainly a dumb question, the one that inevitably followed, “Are you going to eat that?” is disturbing in that it implies someone would kill an animal simply for the joy of it. (This is not a knock or an endorsement of catch-and-release fishermen who fish only to feel the fight an outgunned fish gives them.)
Seeing the diver with his undersized fish caused me to feel conflicted. Should I blow this guy’s buzz by informing him that he had just broken the law, or let it go, hoping that he learns on his own?
He had the pasty, naïve appearance of a tourist and I decided to leave him alone to enjoy what was no doubt a rare moment at the beach.
On my way home, I thought about it — what if he keeps spearing tiny fish? What if he brings friends? If that happens, I hope he learns quicker than I did that a sack full of fish does nothing but stink up the yard. ***
Please check out my latest passion project, the Godngangsters YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwsdPD4GEnKa3F7KEL-S3Q
water spot
chris ahrens
